Haleigh's father joins search on horseback

SATSUMA -- On Sunday as investigators were deciding to close the intense ground searches for missing Haleigh Ann-Marie Cummings, her father worked the woods on horseback to find his little girl.

"I tried to discourage him from going out," said Tim Miller, founder of a Texas-based group specializing in horseback and all-terrain searches that was called by investigators to look for Haleigh. "He said, 'If I get on a horse I can clear my head and feel as if I'm really out there searching for my daughter.'"

In a break between rides into the woods, Miller said the benefit of including Ronald Cummings in the search was weighed against concern about what he might find.

But it turned out okay.

"He literally looks like a different person," Miller said. "I think this has done him a lot of good."

But on the sixth day of searching there were no breakthroughs and no significant finds, said Chief Rick Ryan of the Putnam County Sheriff's Office. By the end of the day, work by Miller's volunteer group was suspended and main investigative operations were moved back to Palatka, where detectives will be closer to the Sheriff's Office for interviews and communications facilities are better.

Detectives will also continue to build a 30-day timeline of who Haleigh was in contact with and follow leads.

On a cool Sunday morning as congregants of Hope Lutheran Church pulled sweaters close as they left the small Satsuma church, the Rev. Jake Brey said he had told them not to give up hope for the kindergartener's safe return.

As an ex-cop from South Florida, the 62-year-old pastor has a perspective from his former career.

He said he has watched as investigators have interviewed and re-interviewed family and friends of the missing kindergartener.

"Don't pre-judge," he said. Family and friends are the first to be scrutinized. "It's hardship enough without deciding already who's guilty and who isn't."

Throughout the week, vigils have been held and one is planned for Tuesday evening at Dunns Creek Baptist Church on U.S. 17 in San Mateo north of Satsuma.

Normalcy is hard to come by in the community now. Standing outside Cummings' canopy and tarp shelter, family friend Autumn Marchand said even her 3-year-old daughter wants to reach out.

But Haleigh is not home, and remained gone on what would have been a special day in her families year. Little Ronald Jr. turned 4. Cake was bought and presents wrapped and a party was planned, Marchand said. Just when Sunday wasn't set.

Not far away and not long after, where the horse searches were staging, searcher Tim Miller said his group is also involved in a search for a 3-year-old in Arkansas and a 14-year-old in Mississippi.